Tumbling device



u R. Y. 2 1 0 K E 6 T 4, y m c m 7 m W a l IDM A s, F w T. E L L w lk1 a m w Wma., 3V D v m m QN Rum s Y www F M d m.\ .wm //\n,t A F one M. W

Dec, 2, 1924.

A. F. ROCKWELL TUMBLING DEVICE Filed Sept. 8, 3.919 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 n INVENTOR. A affirm@ A TTORNE Y.

Cil

Patented Dec. 2, 1924,

'rar

errar ALBERT rIF. ROCKWE-LL, OF BRISTOL, CGNNECTICUT, A.SSIGNOR, BY ,MESNE ASSIGN- MENTS, T0 STANDARD STEEL ANB BEAENGS NG-ORPGRATED, OF WILMINGTON, DELAWARE, A CORPGRATIGN 0F DELAWARE.

TUMBLING nnvron.

Application led September Tb all whom t may concern.'

Be it known that I, ALBERT F. RooKwnLL, a citizen of thenited States, and a resident of Bristol, in the county of Hartford and State of Connecticut, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in rlumbling Devices, ofv which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to rumblers, or tumbling barrels, suchas are used for grinding and polishing small articles.

Tumbling devices of the character hereto- 'fore known and used have not been satisfactorily suited for use in the manufacture of balls for antifriction bearings in that they have not been constructed in a manner to secure the desired eliicient grinding action of the balls against each other or to prevent a destructive action of the balls on the walls of the rotating box or barrel.

I have devised a tumbling barrel in which means are provided Vfor holding one or more layers of balls adjacent the bottom of the barrel in substantially stationary position with respect to the barrel. By this means those'balls in the'barrel above said stationary balls are caused to tumble or rub in the most effective manner against the stationary balls as the barrel turns. ln this manner the turning' of the barrel causes the balls to rub one against another and not, as has heretofore been the practice, to rub the balls against the wall of the barrel as well as against one another. In other words, the theory and practice with respect to this feature of my invention is to obtain a greatly increased relative movement of the balls with respect to and against one another as compared to the ordinary relative move-y mentfin tumbling barrels of the prior art in which the greater relative movement of the articles inthe barrels rotation is with respect to and against the wall of the barrel. The. result of my new arrangement and .mode of operation is to substantially increase the; capacity of thebarrel and at the same Atime avoid the wear on the interior surface of. the; barrel. Ipreferably'eect the referred Atoffeature of yinvention by means of a series of ballengaging ribs cr' flanges arrangedl substantially in the plane: passing through. the axis ofthe; barrel butnaty a slight angle to said a, i919. serial no. 322,347.

plane so as to gradually feed the balls tothc outlet. rlhese ribs are perpendicular tothe wall of the barrel for a suliicient distance toward the axis to insure that one or more layers of balls along the bottom of the barrel will be retained between the ribs. I prefer to provide flanges extending a smalldistance laterally from the outer edge of said ribs and toward the direction of rotation. By this construction, one or more layers of balls are packed and substantially retained between the ribs so as to'move with. the barrel through the arc extending under the mass of balls in the barrel. After thism'ovement, those balls between the ribs are dropped on top-of the mass in the barrel" and other balls are necessarily movedy with the barrel between the flanges and relatively to the mass of balls above, which mass in itself is being rolled over in the usual manner as the barrel rotates.

There is anotherfeature of the invention which is of vconsiderable importance, and that is the provision of means for extracting a number of balls from the container or of discharging the entire mass of balls in the container without stopping the operation of the machine. I likewise provide for supplying fresh charges of balls to the device' while the machine is operating, thus doing away with the necessity for removing a section of the rotatable container to effect the operation of charging and discharging batches of'balls from the apparatus, or to obtain samples of the balls during the operation for' testing purposes.

ln order to remove balls from the containerA for testing purposes, or to discharge finished balls from the container during the rotation thereof, arrange the ball-engaging ribs at a small angle to the axial plane of the container so that they act 4to gradually feed balls toward one end of the containerand present them for discharge through openings formed for the purpose in one-end of a rotatable arbor or shaft on which the barrel is mounted and with which it rotates The discharge openings in the shaft areprovided with suitable gate members by which the discharge of balls therethrough can ybe controlled at the will of the operator.

In order to providefor the introduction of. balls ntoqthe Container during; the rota- Iii tion thereof, I preferably form the remaining end of the shaft d also with passages through Which balls may be passed from a conveniently arranged hopper into the interior of the barrel Without stopping the operation of the machine.

In order to eliminate the expensive operation of fitting the edges of the sections of the container Walls to each other With a dew gree of nicety suHicient to pr duce liquidtight joints for preventingthe leakage of an abrasive-charged liquid, vsuch as oil or Water, from the container, I preferably form the sections in the most convenient manner and therefore With only approximately true abutting edges such as can be provided with no speciall labor or expense, and provide against loss of the liquid from the container by causing the container to rotate in vat or receptacle which can be provided at much less expense than that of fitting the edges of the container and in which there is placed a quantity of the liquid to submerge the lower portion of the container.y so that there is as much tendency for liquid to enter the container through the roughly fitted joints as there is for the liquid to pass out therethrough7 With the result that the volume of liquid in the container is constantly maintained at substantially7 the same level.

Referring to the draivings,-

Fig. 1 is a transverse vertical section of a preferred form of tumbling device embodying the invention;

n Fig. 2 is a view in side elevation, partly in section, of the device shown in Fig'. 1.

In the drawings, there is disclosedy a preferred form of tumbling apparatus embodying my invention, in which a tumbling barrel 1 is made up of a plurality of sections 2 bolted to seats 3 formed for the purpose near the opposite extremities of the massive arbor or shaft 4. The barrel sections 2 have their edges brought into abutting' engage -ment and are preferably held in fired relation to each other by means of suitable bolts `5. The shaft 4t is journaled at its opposite ends in suitable bearings 6 'formed in the framework standards 7 and is driven through a gear train S from a suitable motor 9.

The barrel 1 is preferably caused to rotate in a vat or receptacle 10 which is preferably formed With its bottom 11 slightly inclined from the horizontal so that the left-hand end thereof is lower than the opposite end, as shown in Fig. 2, to facilitate the accumu lation of sediment in the loiver end of the vat 10 and its ready removal therefrom. This operation is further facilitated by the extension of the correspondine` side of the vat bevond the adjacent side of the barrel, as indicated, thus providing access to the vat for removing` spent attritious matter and ground material for adding to the volume of liquid therein.

ln order to cause the effective movement of the balls with respect to one another in the tumblino operation, I provide certain of the container or barrel sections 2 With ballengaging ribs 12 having laterally-directed edges or flanges 13 so as to effectively engage one or more layers of balls at the bottom of the mass in the container and positively cause said layers to move With the barrel through the are of rotation extending under the mass of balls in the barrel. By this structural arrangement, I secure a double function and utility, in that some of the balls are positively carried with the barrel ivhile the others not positively can Iied must roll over and against one another and aga-inst those that are positively carried along),` the bottom of the mass, and in that the interior Wall of the barrel is protected against the destructive Wearing action of the balls, which results When the balls move with respect to and against said wall, as has been the practice in the prior art.

Not only have l succeeded in producing a form of ball-engaging flange by the use of which the improved reducing action referred to is secured but, by means of an arrangement of the ball-carrying` ribs and flanges. as is indicated in Fig. 3, l cause the balls to be gradually impelled toward one ful of the centrally-disposed drive-shaft 4. Where a portion of their number rolls from the acjacent ends 17 of the flanges 12 into engagement with suitable guide or directing; surfaces 16 formed on the shaft and which act to direct the balls either into a discharge outlet in the end of the shaft l or into impacting` engr-.froment With the mass of balls on the bottom of the container. Hou'- ever, by reason of the small angle at which the ribs are arranged, the feeding action of the balls toward the outlet or discharge. end of the container is .not so pronounced as to cause a too rapid movement of all the balls to the discharge end, but, instead, this action is suliiciently restricted to permit of the retention of the balls for an effective reducing` action.

A gate member comprising` a disk 18 liting' the inner end of the outlet passage 15 is provided With a series of ports` 19 Which may be brought into alinement with the Qrooves 16 in the shaft Ll to permit of th(` discharge of the balls therethrough, or to close the discharge port and cause the balls to undergo the reducing' acti-on. The disk 18 is preferably carried at one end of a hollow cylindrical stem member 2O provided With a transverse pin 21 or equivalent means by which an operator may turn the stem upon a supporting` rod 22 carried directly bv the shaft 4, in order to bring the ports 19 into or out of discharging position. By

this structural arrangement it will be seen that, without stopping the operation of the machine, by merely turning the gate member to open position, it is a simple matter to obtain samples of the balls being operated upon whenever desired in order to determine the progress of the reducing operation.

It will be seen that the angularly-arranged flanges will exert a gradual impelling action of the balls carried thereby toward the directing members 16 on the shaft 4. The result of this is that when the discharge ports 19 are in closed condition, such of the balls as roll. from the ends of the flanges will drop from the directing' members 16 directly onto the mass of balls in the bottom of the container, while the comparatively large mass of balls between the ribs 12 will drop over the edge thereof as the ribs rise in their rotation.

In an analogous manner, I provide for charging a batch of balls into the tumbling barrel without removing a section of the container wall and, if desired, without stopping the operation of the machine. In order to eiect this, an inlet passage 25 is provided at the right-hand end of the shaft 4 as illustrated in Fig. 1, into which a discharge nozzle 26 leading from a suitable hopper 27 projects.- Transverse` passages 28 in the shaft 4 intersect the inner end of the passage 25 and provide for communication between the passage 25 and the interior of the container 1. It will be clear that balls supplied to the hopper 27 will be fed through the outlet nozzle 26 into the passage 25 in the shaft 4 and thence through the transverse ports or passages 28 into the interior of the container, and that the charging operation can be carried out while the barrel is rotating.

By means of the construction described I have succeeded in producing a device for the purpose in which not only is there secured a reducing and grinding action of increased effectiveness but, in addition, the desirable features of charging and discharging the device without stopping the operation thereof are also received.

In have described my invention with respect to a preferred form and in connection with the tumbling of balls, but certain features of the preferred form of the invention may obviously be changed with respect to d etail and the particular articles to be tumbled without departing from the invention as claimed.

What I claim is,-

1. A tumbling device comprising, a tumbling barrel, a rotatable shaft on which the barrel is mounted, and inwardly extending ribs on said barrel, said ribs terminating at each end at points adjacent the rotatable shaft whereby articles will be directed from the ends of said ribs against the shaft to increase the tumbling action. i

2.v A tumbling device comprising, a tumbling barrel, a rotatable shaft on which the barrel is mounted, said barrel being curved longitudinally of the shaft and provided with inwardly extending ribs provided at their free edges with flanges extending in the direction of rotation, and said ribs terminating adjacent the rotatable shaft.

3. In a tumbling device, a tumbling barrel having a spheroidal formation, a rotatable shaft for the barrel extending therethrough, said barrel being provided with inwardly extending ribs provided at their free edges with flanges extending in the direction of rotation of the ribs, and said ribs terminating adjacent the rotatable shaft, said shaft serving to deiiect articles falling thereagainst to increase the tumbling action.

4. In a tumbling device, a tumbling barrel having a spheroidal formation, a shaft for the barrel extending therethrough, said barrel being provided with inwardly extending ribs terminating adjacent the shaft, and said shaft being provided with ports near one end leading to the' extension of the barrel, and one end of said ribs being arranged to feed articles to said ports.

5. In a tumbling device, a tumbling bai'- rel having a spheroidal formation, a shaft for the barrel extending therethrough, said barrel being provided with inwardly extending ribs terminating` adjacent the shaft, said shaft being provided with ports near one end leading to the exterior of the barrel and one end of each of said ribs being arranged to feed articles to said ports, and said shaft being provided with inlet ports near the other end thereof through which articles can be fed from the exterior of the casing.

6. In a tumbling device, a tumbling barrel having a spheroidal formation, a receptacle for liquid so arranged with relation to the barrel that kthe lower portion of the barrel is immersed in the liquid in the container, and the bottom of the container being inclined upwardly in the direction of rotation of the barrel therein.

ALBERT F. ROCKWELL. 

